108th Precinct Conditions Unit Officers Are Honored
BY THOMAS COGAN

The 108th Police Precinct has a body of officers known as the conditions unit, whose duties include keeping a close watch on previously convicted persons that are likely suspects or persons of interest when certain crimes have been committed. At the March meeting of the 108th Precinct Community Council, that unit was recognized for the work its members have been doing, as five of them were cited as Cops of the Month. The meeting also celebrated the entire career of Detective Glenn Yule, who announced his retirement at the end of February. Some local concerns were also brought up and replied to.

Presenting the Cop of the Month awards was an officer new to the precinct, Lieutenant Mark Wachter, who told the audience at Sunnyside Community Services that he had spent a long time in Brooklyn and that he was the man to see in matters of traffic and graffiti. The award winners were Sergeant Daniel Burke and Patrol Officers Joseph Kohart, Dolly Garcia, James Demarco and Keith Mattes, the last of whom was absent. They and the unit they represent were cited for the way they handled two recent incidents. The first occurred at Queens Boulevard and 48th Street on Friday, March 14, at 9:15 p.m. A man was assaulted there by a group of persons and did not immediately report the attack. The officers of the special unit, for reasons having nothing to do with the attack they knew nothing about at the time, stopped and questioned three persons. Later, when the assault victim reported the offense, the officers recalled that the persons they had questioned fit the description he supplied. They found and arrested them. Further questioning revealed a fourth person in the group, who was arrested the following day. The second incident took place a couple of days later and involved two separate victims. Each had her purse snatched in the vicinity of 71st Street and 41st Avenue. One of them was also slow to complain but the other one wasn't, so the officers were already on the case when the tardy complaint was made. The two descriptions seemed to fit one person, who was sought, found and arrested.

When Commander Deputy Inspector Thomas Kavanagh was done with his crime report, which specified that burglary was still a problem, he asked for questions and commentary from the audience. A man who said he lives in the Celtic Park Apartments on 48th Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets said that the landlord has told the tenants that owing to various expenses the security force for the several buildings and the parking lot is being discontinued during the daytime hours, though it will be retained during night hours. The tenant sought the commander's opinion on the cutback, believing that burglars are as big a menace in the daytime as at night. Kavanagh said that precinct records show that most burglaries occur in the daytime, probably because burglars figure many tenants are at work during that time. The tenant asked if the commander would conclude that the cutback is not a good idea and Kavanagh said in his opinion it isn't. The tenant said that in protesting the decision to the landlord, he and fellow tenants would refer to the commander's authoritative word.

Al Volpe, Woodside resident, inquired once again about parking bans in front of construction projects, even when no work is being done. Yule told him that deliveries to construction sites are often made at night or in the early morning, and when the suppliers arrive at the site to unload they shouldn't be impeded by cars or trucks parked there, so parking of vehicles at construction sites is banned so long as construction is proceeding. Yule added what everybody knew, that the question was not one for the police but for the Department of Transportation.

Yule left the 108th Precinct last June, having been appointed to a post in Patrol Borough Queens North; and there he spent the last eight months of his career. He retired at the end of February, after 21 and a half years with the police. He appeared at the meeting with his wife and daughter, and, as he had done in June, arrived bearing a supply of White Castle hamburgers for those in attendance. Community Council President Diane Ballek presented him with a plaque expressing everyone's appreciation, and Yule described his years of service as "a joy and a pleasure". His post-police life will be active, since he has been appointed executive director of the Sunnyside Business Improvement District (BID).